The Wedding
by zohahusain
Summary: I loosened my tie. I felt so nervous. I was marrying Lily Evans.   I thought about the first time I saw her. How I slowly fell in love with her and tried to woo her and eventually managed to convince her that I'm not so horrible after all.


I loosened my tie. I felt as if I was being strangled. My hands instinctively reached up to my hair before I realized that I shouldn't mess them up. Not today. It was our wedding day. I didn't want to make Lily angry as she walked down the aisle and saw that I had been messing up my hair. She hated it when I did that.

I felt so nervous I could barely stand straight. It was like someone had struck me with the Jelly-Legs Jinx. I was getting married to Lily Evans in mere minutes. And soon she'd be Lily Potter. Mrs. James Potter. Merlin that sounded great.

_But what if she changes her mind? _I thought. It could happen. She'd probably realize that I'm not good enough for her. That she can do so much better.

I tried to focus on counting the trees around me instead. We'd decided to have the wedding outdoors. It was Fall and Lily loved the color of the trees in this season. She said it looked magical and it made up for us having a Muggle wedding. It was a fairly small affair, though, with just our close friends and family. In these times it wasn't safe to have a big wedding.

I still remember the first time I ever saw Lily. Her shock of red hair and her emerald green eyes mesmerized me and made me act like a complete git the first time I ever talked to her.

We often had arguments. They annoyed her to her core; she told me once after we became friends. But for me they were amazing. I had Lily Evans's full attention. She was _speaking_ to me. It was exhilarating. Though in my third year I decided that wasn't enough. I knew I liked Lily from the moment I saw her but my Gryffindor courage only kicked in during third year when I decided to ask her out. It wasn't very tactful of me to do it in the middle of the Great Hall for everyone to see, I later realized. But I was a thirteen year old boy who couldn't think straight due to raging hormones.

I didn't even ask her properly. I remember exactly what I said to her. She was leaving the Gryffindor table after lunch and I ran after her. I called out to her and she turned around to look at me with an annoyed expression on her face.

"What do you want, Potter?"

"I want you to go out with me, Evans." I said.

She just stared at me, shocked, like I'd grown an extra head or something.

"Uh, please?" I added, thinking it would help. It didn't.

She didn't even answer me. Her face was almost as red as her hair and after she recovered from shock, she ran out of the Great Hall. I felt like someone had ripped my heart out of my chest and kicked it across the floor. I wasn't embarrassed at first. I was just hurt. I realized how stupid I had been after Moony lectured me on tact later on that day. I really don't know what I'd do without him.

I decided to turn it into a game. I asked her out almost every week to make it seem as if I didn't care that she turned me down. That it was just a joke and I had no feelings for her. It was a terrible idea, though, because it just made her dislike me more.

She started calling me lots of names after that. 'Arrogant toerag' was her personal favorite. And even though she was so hostile towards me, I fell in love with her. I couldn't help it. I definitely didn't want to fall in love with someone who loved me almost as much as Grindelwald loved puppies. I always made a fool of myself in front of her. It happened without me even realizing it. Padfoot had a lot of laughs at my expense. Good to know that my idiocy amused him.

I tried to distract myself by trying to, erm, mingle with other girls. But none of them were like Lily. Not even close.

Lily was like no one I knew. She was kind and intelligent. She cared for people and stood up for them even when they didn't deserve it. And she was the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on. Whenever I looked into her almond shaped emerald eyes, I felt as if I had been taken to another world. She was amazing.

I continued to behave like a 'toerag', though. She made me so nervous. I didn't know what to do with myself when I was around her.

I don't know how, but we eventually became friends in sixth year after I stopped asking her out. I didn't even talk to her that much except for exchanging 'hellos'. She came up to me one day and asked me if I was feeling okay.

"Uh, I'm peachy. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you seem different. Normal, even. Did you finally grow a brain Potter?" She asked me, smiling.

_Blimey, Lily Evans was smiling at me._ I admit, I had to look around to make sure that yes, it was definitely me she was smiling at.

"I suppose I did. Is that a problem?" I didn't even realize what I was saying. I wanted to slap myself as soon as the words were out of my mouth. How could this girl make me feel like such a dud?

"Not at all. Congratulations Potter. I'm really happy for you! I'll see you around, I suppose." She smiled again and left me sitting there wondering what had just happened.

Then in our seventh year we had to share the Heads Dorm and do rounds together. We became pretty close, eventually. After much thought, I decided to ask her out again. Properly this time. Remus had taught me well.

I lit candles in our Dorm while she was in Hogsmeade with her friends. I got her a bouquet of peonies and orchids. I even wore a button down shirt with jeans to impress her with my Muggle clothing! To put it simply, I went all out.

She walked in with a huge smile on her face, happy after a day off from studying. She looked so beautiful in the candlelight. Her smile faltered.

"James, what is all of this?" She asked me. She still had a small smile on her face. I could tell that she knew what 'all of this' was before I even said anything.

"Lily… I know we got off on the wrong foot and I acted like a prat for more than half the time I've known you," I began. "But that was only because you made me so nervous. And I'm so glad that you gave me a second chance last year. Getting to know you has been amazing and it made me fall even more in love with you. I didn't even think that was possible as I was already so in love with you. I'm sorry that the first time I asked you out I ended up embarrassing you. But I want to make up for that. Lily Evans, will you go out with me?" I asked her. "Please?"

She was still smiling at me. Her eyes looked like bright, shining emeralds when they looked into mine.

"Finally!" She rolled her eyes at me. "You've been asking me out almost every day since third year when I didn't want you to. And when I did you made it seem as if we were just friends. But I guess you finally did something right, Potter." She said, teasingly. "Of course I'll go out with you! Wouldn't want to say no to you for, what, the millionth time?"

And then she kissed me. Our first kiss. It was absolutely perfect. It was the sort of kiss that made me feel a shiver down my spine and butterflies in my stomach. It was something only Lily could make me feel.

"By the way," she said breaking the kiss. "I love you too, James."

It was amazing hearing those words leave her beautiful mouth.

I could never truly believe that Lily Evans was my girlfriend. Every moment spent with her was like a wonderful dream.

I finally decided to ask her to marry me on our last day at Hogwarts. She was feeling sad about leaving and we were sitting by the lake like we usually did when we wanted to be alone. She was sitting with her head on my shoulder and I could smell her intoxicating cherry shampoo.

"Lily?" I said.

"Yes, James?"

"Could you get up for a second, love?"

"Okay…" She said standing up.

That's when I took her hand in mine, went down on one knee as her eyes widened and pulled out my Grandmother's engagement ring from my pocket.

"Lily, will you do me the honor of marrying me?" I asked her.

She gasped and was silent for a moment.

"YES!" she screamed. "YES YES YES! I'll marry you!" There were tears in her eyes as I put the ring on her ring finger. She looked up at me with a jubilant smile on her face. And then I had tears in my eyes as well as we just stood there smiling at each other.

I was pulled from my thoughts about Lily as I heard the music play. There she was on her father's arm. She was looking right at me with so much happiness in her eyes. In that moment, I felt as if it was just me and her. All the nervousness left me. I didn't have to worry about her changing her mind, either. Because as I looked into her beautiful green eyes, I knew. I knew that we would spend the rest of our lives together. That we'd have children and a home. A whole family. We'd grow old together.

As her father gave her away to me, she had tears in her eyes. Tears of joy and happiness. And so did I. Because I would get to spend the rest of my life with this wonderful and beautiful woman.

"I love you," I whispered to her.

She smiled and said "I love you too, James."


End file.
